Get angry with your work

I’m all for gentle compassion when it comes to my own work, and for a long time my life’s trickiest lesson was about not being too hard on myself. But there is a point, I’ve realized, in which you can go too far the other way.

If something’s not working, there’s no point in continuing to approach it with gentleness in the hope it’ll magically get better.

Sometimes as a writer or artist of any kind you have to get angry, have a hissy fit, yell at your computer screen, tear the pages in half. You need to do whatever it takes to unleash the fiery torrent of passion that will help you find your way around whatever’s blocking you so you can get to the molten core of whatever it is you’re working on. That core is the truth of your work, and what people will respond to. 

I was reminded of this when re-reading Twila Tharp’s The Creative Habit: “The tantrum, judiciously applied, is a great wake-up call… throw a tantrum at yourself. Anger is a cheap adrenaline rush, but when you’re going nowhere and can’t get started, it will do.”

(Just make sure you apply this directly to your work, certainly not to other people!)

(Image: Strokkur Geyser, Iceland, by Matthias Hauser)